Cliffoney Men's Shed Fundraiser

On behalf of Cliffoney Men’s Shed, we want to give you a brief outline of our progress to date at our Shed.

After years of protracted discussions between ourselves and The O.P.W. and laterally with the Sligo County Council, we finally were given possession of the former Garda Station in Cliffoney last November. We now have the property on a 20-year lease from the Sligo County Council. We would sincerely like to thank the businesses in our area who have contributed handsomely to our cause already. If you are one of those, then feel free to ignore this letter.

Since last November we have undertaken major works to the property including complete demolition and refurbishment of the building’s interior, the clean-up of the site, the erection of the polytunnel and glasshouse, the installation of a kerbing on our side of the Chapel wall, creating a raised bed which now runs from front to the back. This bed includes a large flowerbed to the front, with various types of fruit bushes, snowdrops, bluebells and daffodils all the way to the rear.

As a Men’s Shed we could have settled for all this but we felt that this would have been a backward step. So we applied, and got planning permission to turn the building into a Multi-purpose property that the village needs and deserves. It will now become a 2 storey structure which will accommodate our local Foroige, a Book Club, and a Women’s Shed. To the rear there will be a large Reading Room /Relaxing area/ Tea and Coffee Room. The rear will contain the toilets and stairwell. The Reading Room will have the entire back wall in glass leading onto a patio, our polytunnel and bowling area.

All this does not come cheap. We are in the process of securing grants for the project. However, for some grants, we have “Match Funding” which means that for every hundred thousand euro granted we must have a minimum of twenty-five thousand euro. Our Members have been contributing €100 membership for the past 3 years. In fairness there is only so much blood you can extract from one stone. Time is also a factor, as most of us are well past our ‘Sell by Date’. We already have lost 4 of our Men’s Shed members in the last 3 years. We would like to dedicate what we have achieved to date to the memory of Martin Currid, Hugh Quinn, John O’ Donnell, and Liam Rooney all who have succumbed to the dreaded curse of Cancer.

This fundraiser will be the first and last from Cliffoney Men’s Shed, and that is it. We are not seeking a prohibitive amount of money. Anything from €5 upwards would be greatly appreciated.

On a lighter note we would like to thank the lady who brings us scones butter and jam, and cakes every Wednesday for the past ten months. We questioned her generosity after about a month. She simply replied “Sure aren’t ye doing it for the community”, and we are just trying to give something back to the Community.

Donations may be made by any of the following methods:

Thanking you in anticipation,

Cliffoney Men’s Shed.